Psychoacoustically perceived audio qualities such as richness, fullness, depth and spaciousness describe a “soundstage” that relates to listeners' audio experience. Such qualities may affect listeners' subjective audio involvement, as well as their overall spatial perception of the soundstage. Stereophonic audio (“stereo”) uses at least two (2) distinct or independent audio channels for reproducing sound with multiple loudspeakers. Stereo audio reproduces sound so that it may be perceived from multiple directions.
For persons with essentially normal binaural hearing, stereo audio may provide a somewhat natural sounding listening experience that may, in a sense, be considered aurally fulfilling. Stereo audio may use stereophonic projection, in which relative positions associated with recorded sound components of the audio content are encoded and reproduced to generate elements or components of the soundstage. Loudspeaker placement and separation may affect soundstage perception.
This section describes approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Thus, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.